Welcome back to This Week in\u00a0Apps, the\u00a0TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications, and the overall app economy.
\nThe app industry is as hot as ever, with\u00a0a record 204 billion downloads and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019. People now\u00a0spend three hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Apps aren\u2019t just a way to pass idle hours \u2014 they\u2019re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined\u00a0$544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus.
\nThis week, we\u2019re digging into more data about how the App Store commission changes will impact developers, as well as other top stories, like Snapchat\u2019s new Spotlight feed and India\u2019s move to ban more Chinese apps from the country, among other things.<\/p>\n
We also have our weekly round-up of news about platforms, services, privacy, trends, and other headlines.
\nTop Stories
\nMore on App Store Commissions
\nLast week, App Annie confirmed to TechCrunch around 98% of all iOS developers in 2019 (meaning, unique publisher accounts) fell under the $1 million annual consumer spend threshold that will now move App Store commissions from a reduced 15% to the standard 30%. The firm also found that only 0.5% of developers were making between $800K and $1M; only 1% were in $500K-$800K range; and 87.7% made less than $100K.
\nThis week, Appfigures has compiled its own data on how Apple\u2019s changes to App Store commissions will impact the app developer community.
\nAccording to its findings, of the 2M published apps on the App Store, 376K apps are a paid download, have in-app purchases, or monetize with subscriptions. Those 376K apps are operated by a smaller group of 124.5K developers. Of those developers, only a little under 2% earned more than $1M in 2019. This confirms App Annie\u2019s estimate that 98% of all developers earned under the $1M threshold.<\/p>\n
Image Credits: Appfigures<\/p>\n
The firm also took a look at companies above the $1M mark, and found that around 53% were games, led by King (of the Candy Crush titles). After a large gap, the next largest categories in 2019 were Health & Fitness, Social Networking, Entertainment, then Photo & Video.
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\nOf the developers making over $1M, the largest percentage \u2014 39% \u2014 made between $1M and $2.5M in 2019.<\/p>\n
Image Credits: Appfigures<\/p>\n
The smallest group (1.5%) of developers making more than $1M is the group making more than $150M. These accounted for 29% of the \u201cover $1M\u201d crowd\u2019s total revenue. And those making between $50M and $150M accounted for 24% of the revenue.<\/p>\n
Image Credits: Appfigures<\/p>\n
AppFigures also found that of those making less than $1M, most (>97%) fell into the sub $250K category. Some developes were worried about the way Apple\u2019s commission change system was implemented \u2014 that is, it immediately upon hitting $1M and only annual reassessments. But there are so few developers operating in the \u201cdanger zone\u201d (being near the threshold), this doesn\u2019t seem like a significant problem. Read More.
\nSnapchat takes on TikTok
\nAfter taking on\u00a0TikTok\u00a0\u00a0with\u00a0music-powered features last month, Snapchat this week launched a dedicated place within its app where users can watch short, entertaining videos in a vertically scrollable, TikTok-like feed. This new feature, called Spotlight, will showcase the community\u2019s creative efforts, including the videos now backed by music, as well as other Snaps users may find interesting. Snapchat says its algorithms will work to surface the most engaging\u00a0Snaps to display to each user on a personalized basis. Read More.\u00a0
\nIndia bans more Chinese apps
\nIndia, which has already banned at least 220 apps with links to China in recent months, said on Tuesday it was banning an additional 43 Chinese apps, again citing cybersecurity concerns. Newly banned apps include short video service Snack Video, e-commerce app AliExpress, delivery app Lalamove, shopping app Taobao Live, business card reader CamCard, and others. There are now no Chinese apps in the top 500 most-used apps in India, as a result. Read More.
\nWeekly News
\nPlatforms<\/p>\n
Apple\u2019s App Store Connect will now require an Apple ID with 2-step verification enabled.<\/p>\n
Apple announces holiday schedule for App Store Connect. New apps and app updates won\u2019t be accepted Dec. 23-27 (Pacific Time).<\/p>\n
SKAdNetwork 2.0 adds Source App ID and Conversion Value. The former lets networks identify which app initiated a download from the App Store and the latter lets them know whether users who installed an app through a campaign performed an action in the app, like signing up for a trial or completing a purchase.<\/p>\n
Apple rounded up developer praise for its App Store commission change. Lending their names to Apple\u2019s list: Little 10 Robot (Tots Letters and Numbers), Broadstreet (Brief), Foundermark (Friended), Shine, Lifesum, Med ART Studios (Sprout Fertility Tracker), RevenueCat, OK Play, SignEasy, Jump Rope, Wine Spectator, Apollo for Reddit, SwingVision Tennis, Cin\u00e9moi.<\/p>\n
Services<\/p>\n
Fortnite adds a $12\/mo subscription offering a full season battle pass, 1,000 monthly bucks and a Crew Pack featuring an exclusive outfit bundle. More money for Apple to miss out on, I guess.<\/p>\n
14 U.S. states plus Washington D.C. have now adopted COVID-19 contact tracing apps. CA and other states may release apps soon. Few in the U.S. have downloaded the apps, however, which limits their usefulness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Samsung\u2019s TV Plus streaming TV service\u00a0comes to more Galaxy phones<\/p>\n
Security & Privacy<\/p>\n
Apple\u2019s senior director of global privacy, Jane Horvath, in a letter to the Ranking Digital Rights organization, confirms App Tracking Transparency feature will arrive in 2021. The feature will allow users to disable tracking between apps. The letter also slams Facebook for collecting \u201cas much data as possible\u201d on users.<\/p>\n
Baidu\u2019s apps banned from Google Play, Baidu Maps and the Baidu App, were leaking sensitive user data, researchers said. The apps had 6M U.S. users and millions more worldwide.<\/p>\n
Apps in the News<\/p>\n
Robinhood\u2019s co-founder Baiju Bhatt steps down as co-CEO ahead of IPO.<\/p>\n
TikTok\u2019s deadline for a sale gets another extension, this time to Dec. 4th.<\/p>\n
Google launches an AR app for \u201cThe Mandalorian\u201c<\/p>\n
Google launches Task Mate in India which pays users for taking pictures of storefronts or recording short voice clips, the latter which is likely being used to train speech recognition systems.<\/p>\n
Nintendo\u2019s Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp adds AR features.<\/p>\n
Microsoft\u2019s Translator app for Android can now automatically translate speech in one-on-one conversations.<\/p>\n
TikTok adds a feature that allows users to avoid videos that could trigger epileptic seizures.<\/p>\n
Parler users haven\u2019t actually left Twitter, it seems.<\/p>\n
Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides can now edit Microsoft Office files on iOS. The feature already worked on Android and the web.<\/p>\n
Roblox hosts a Ready Player Two treasure hunt in its app.<\/p>\n
Spotify is still testing Stories.<\/p>\n
Trends<\/p>\n
Image Credits: Sensor Tower<\/p>\n
U.S. Brick-and-mortar retail apps saw 27% growth in first three quarters of 2020, or nearly double the growth of online retailer apps (14%), as measured by new installs. Top apps included Walmart, Target, Sam\u2019s Club, Nike, Walgreens, and The Home Depot.<\/p>\n
App Annie forecast estimates shoppers will spend over 110M hours in (Android) mobile shopping apps this holiday season.<\/p>\n
PayPal and Square\u2019s Cash app have scored 100% of the newly-issued supply of bitcoins, report says.<\/p>\n
All social media companies now look alike, Axois argues, citing Twitter\u2019s Fleets and Snap\u2019s TikTok-like feature as recent examples.<\/p>\n
Funding and M&A<\/p>\n
CoStar Group, a provider of commercial real estate info and analytics, acquires Homesnap\u2019s platform and app for $250M to move into the residential real estate market.<\/p>\n
Remote work app Friday raises $2.1M seed\u00a0led by Bessemer Venture Partners
\nStories-style Q&A app F3 raises $3.9M. The team previously founded Ask.fm.
\nEdtech company Kahoot acquires Drops, a startup whose apps help people learn languages using games, for $50M.<\/p>\n
Mobile banking app Current raises $131M Series C,\u00a0led by Tiger Global Management.<\/p>\n
Square buys Credit Karma\u2019s tax unit, Credit Karma Tax, for $50M in cash.<\/p>\n